Fire in the Sky
Some people thought it may've been an aircraft on fire, but none are missing. Experts say it may've been meteors but there's no known major meteor shower underway right now. Doug Rudd, of the Des Moines Astronomical Society, says he thinks it was "space debris, some satellite or a rocket booster that was coming back through the atmosphere and breaking up."
People reported small objects that looked like bright lights or something burning, with flaming tails behind some of them, said Ken Tretter of Missouri State Highway Patrol in St. Louis.
He said the reports came in from a widespread area, including St. Louis, Cape Girardeau and Pettis County in Missouri and near Alton and Bunker Hill in Illinois.
An individual in the area of State Highway 44, south of Oshkosh, spotted a fireball the "size of an airplane" in the sky, Sgt. Gordon Ledioyt said. Other calls followed.
Despite officers being unable to explain the flashing green, yellow and red lights, Voices has solved the phenomena.
It was not a UFO but a meteorite which crash through the earth's atmosphere and landed in Yeşilkent.
The exploding fireball which reportedly crashed to earth in or around Lake Waikare, near Te Kauwhata, on Sunday afternoon has so far proved a mystery.
Hundreds of folks across the region called and e-mailed media outlets and the National Weather Service to report to report strange blue lights in the night sky Wednesday at about 8:15 p.m.
"We had several calls last night from people around the area who saw lights in the sky," Larry Lee of the National Weather Service told WYFF News 4's Nigel Robertson.
What was it?
"We have no idea," Lee said.
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©WBIR |
Meteor photographed over Tennessee in January 2007 |
Numerous East Tennesseans reported seeing a bright green light streak through the sky Wednesday night. Police dispatchers said they got so many calls, they didn't have time to count them.
Reports on its direction of travel varied somewhat. Most accounts on its shape and color reported it being blue-green with a comet-like tail, and many callers to WBIR were surprised by the size of it.
WBIR's own Steve Phillips saw the light as he returned from dinner and said it was larger than he expected a meteor to be.
The light was first seen at 0730 GMT, with one eyewitness describing it as a "long line, thicker at one end, bluey-green and flashing".
Reports of the light came in from the Lleyn Peninsula through to Swansea.
Jay Tate from Spaceguard UK said it was most likely to be a piece of space debris entering the earth's atmosphere.
"It was frightening," said Morfudd Parry Roberts from Aberdaron, Gwynedd.
"I was sitting having a cup of coffee by the window when I saw it (the light) move from the north towards the south.
"It was a long line, thicker at the front end. It was quite frightening because it seemed so big."
Comment: We have run a couple of other articles about this particular fireball. This article has, however, some classic rationalizations: there is no known major meteor shower underway at the moment, and so it must be space debris... except that ""The amount of data that's available to us to track those things is quite voluminous and when something like this does occur, it really does take people off guard."
We bet.
Notice they are saying no "major" meteor shower underway, which should give some indication as to the spectacular show people saw on Sunday night.
And, somehow, we have the feeling that it is only going to get worse. People are going to be caught more and more off guard... and not from space debris.